1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle headlight. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a technique that reduces the size of a vehicle headlight and the number of components of the vehicle headlight by integrally forming a yoke of a drive mechanism, which rotates a movable shade, with a stationary shade that blocks a part of light emitted from a light source.
2. Related Art
As a vehicle headlight, there is, for example, a vehicle headlight where a lamp unit including a light source is disposed in a lamp casing formed of a cover and a lamp housing.
As a lamp unit of a vehicle headlight, there is a lamp unit that includes a stationary shade and a movable shade and can switch the irradiation mode of light emitted from a light source by the rotation of the movable shade relative to the stationary shade (for example, see JP-A-2009-230958).
In the vehicle headlight disclosed in JP-A-2009-230958, for example, a mode is switched to a so-called low-beam irradiation mode irradiating at a short distance when the movable shade is rotated to a shielding position where the movable shade blocks light emitted from the light source, and a mode is switched to a so-called high-beam irradiation mode irradiating at a long distance when the movable shade is rotated to a non-shielding position where the movable shade does not block light emitted from the light source.
The vehicle headlight disclosed in JP-A-2009-230958 is provided with a drive mechanism for rotating the movable shade, and the drive mechanism is formed of an electromagnetic actuator that includes a coil, a yoke, and an output shaft. Accordingly, as current is supplied to the coil of the electromagnetic actuator and the supply of current to the coil of the electromagnetic actuator is stopped, the movable shade is rotated between the shielding position and the non-shielding position.
Meanwhile, it is preferable that the size of a vehicle headlight including a lamp unit be reduced. In particular, in recent years, there has been a demand for the further reduction of the size of a vehicle headlight that is accompanied by the shortening of the focal length of an optical system provided in a vehicle headlight.
Further, it is preferable that the structure of a vehicle headlight also be simple, and it is preferable that the number of components of the vehicle headlight be reduced.
Meanwhile, in the vehicle headlight disclosed in JP-A-2009-230958, a drive mechanism for rotating the movable shade relative to the stationary shade is disposed below the stationary shade. For this reason, the height of a beam switching structure, which includes the stationary shade and the movable shade, in the up-down direction is particularly large and it is difficult to reduce the size of the vehicle headlight.